Technology In Hotel Design Needs To Answer Guests’ Needs Now, In Future

NATIONAL REPORT— Technology is changing at a phenomenal rate these days, and hotels are trying to keep up. Despite a flagging economy, hotels need to be able to project what technology they need to install to accommodate both current and future travelers. Having the forethought of including technology that speaks to guests’ needs is now not only a sign of cutting-edge thinking, it’s a mark of surviving in a highly competitive marketplace. Gone are the days where hotels can rest on their laurels, and fail to offer the most basic technology to its guests, which today, at the very least, is high-speed Internet access. That’s the consensus of architects/designers recently interviewed by HOTEL BUSINESS®. Demographics And Marketplace According to Henry Wong, president, WGA Wong Gregersen Architects in Toronto, hotels right now are “still trying to catch up” to current technology, thereby creating a push for it within the industry. Wong said that technology is related to demographics, and as the consumer profile changes over the next 10 years, hotels will need to be up-to-date, or “future-proof,” as Wong termed it. Aside form demographics, a hotel’s location, which determines the market in which it’s competing, can greatly affect technology decisions, said Kate Greenwood, principal, Brennan Beer Gorman Monk/ Interiors in New York. Designers still need to consider the clientele the hotel is trying to capture. “That [still]drives what we’re trying to design,” said Greenwood. However, warns Wong, “if a [hotel]tries to stay competitive within a specific city, it will be in trouble later on.” Illustrating his point, Wong pointed to the the effect of demographics on hotel design. For example, right now, Wong noted that Baby Boomers are currently using technology, bringing laptops and cell phones with them when they travel. However, a great many are still using dial-up connections to log on, and are using their cell phones to make phone calls. He said this is because many hotels are not employing user-friendly technology. “If it’s easy, Boomers will try it, but if it’s not, they won’t,” said Wong, who added that this group was not raised on technology the way the following generations were. And those generations will “revolutionize” the way technology is used, and will demand a certain level of technology. For example, the “techno-savvy” digital generation— the 88 million born between 1977 to 1994— will be traveling more as they enter the workforce and move up in the business world. “They are the first to network knowledge and gain global exposure to the world through the Internet,” said Wong. That generation has grown up online, completely comfortable with all manner of technology. It has a sense of immediacy that stems from being able to click and get what they want instantly. Therefore, according to Wong, hotel companies need to anticipate that generation’s future needs right now, or else risk losing a significant amount of potential business in the near future. “Most hotels in North America were built in the pre-laptop, pre-Internet era. In-room technology was not a known concept at the time. In the 1990s the low occupancy rate and low room rates made it very difficult for the hotel owners to upgrade the property to meet today’s business traveler technology needs. Most hotels are now trying to upgrade to catch up within the physical limitations and the confine of the old infrastructures,” said Wong. “In 10 years’ time, the digital generation will be traveling, and there will be totally different [guest]expectations. The demographics are changing.” He further pointed out that in addition to the overall digital generation, there is an S Generation— or Single Child Generation— that stems from China that will need to be considered. “These children were the first generation in China to have the most advantages because of being single children. They are urbanized. They embrace Western technology. They grew up in front of T